Memorial Marathon gives Larry Qualls' family a chance to honor his legacy and 'run happy'

Grabbing the hands of her marathon-relay teammates, Katie Fay lifted her arms in the air.

She was smiling long before they crossed the finish line.

“I ran happy,” she said.

She didn’t know if she would be able to do that Sunday during the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. She didn’t know if she could be happy the first time there was a Memorial Marathon without her granddad.

Larry Qualls ran every Memorial Marathon since the start. Even last year when he was in the midst of chemotherapy for colon cancer, he paused his treatment so he’d have enough energy to run.

He never missed the Memorial Marathon.

“This one was the big one,” his grandson Tom Qualls said, adding that his granddad considered the Memorial Marathon a bigger deal than the Boston Marathon or any other races he ran. “It was definitely … a pride point for him to be able to say, ‘Yeah, I’ve run them all. I’ve been there from the start.’”

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But late last year, the cancer Larry Qualls had fought on and off for more than two years invaded with a ferocity. It attacked his body in ways that even medical professionals didn’t fully grasp until his final hours; they talked about him not only going home from the hospital but also getting healthy enough to run in this year's Memorial Marathon.

He died on Nov. 10.

He was 77.

Even though this Memorial Marathon was the first without Qualls ― who all the kids and grandkids called Papaw ― his family carried on his tradition this weekend. It was different, of course, because he wasn’t there.

But his spirit was.

For Qualls, you see, running a race was a chance to be with people who he loved

He didn’t get into running until he was in his 50s when he already had grandkids, so almost any time he ran a marathon, he would take one or three of them. Tom Qualls remembers making a trip to Seattle for a marathon. His sister, Katie, went, too ― she was going to run with Papaw ― but Tom and one of his other cousins were just along for the fun.

Or so they thought.

“I signed you guys up for the marathon,” Papaw told the boys the day before the race.

“What are you talking about?” Tom remembers asking.

“You guys are gonna rent bikes,” Papaw said, “and you’re gonna bike the marathon.”

Tom wasn’t sure what to make of the plan, but it ended up being a blast.

“It was probably the best memory … just sharing a race with him,” Tom said.

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Katie got into running because of her granddad and ran the half marathon at the Memorial Marathon for 10 consecutive years. After she finished, she would always head back onto the course to find Papaw.

Sometimes, she’d find him a mile or so from the finish and run it in with him. Other times, she’d give him some orange slices as he made the long climb up Classen Boulevard. And occasionally, she’d be called into duty.

“I need you to draft for me,” he’d say.

Maybe he needed her windbreak, or maybe he just wanted her company.

Qualls, after all, was all about the camaraderie and the community that came with running.

He grew up in Madill and lived most of his adult life in Durant, so he had the small-town, never-met-a-stranger mentality. Any time he went to the expo during Memorial Marathon weekend, he was always bumping into someone who knew him.

“You think I’d walked in with Josh Giddey or something,” granddaughter Katie said.

“The Mayor,” daughter Cherie Spencer said.

Qualls was so proud of his association with the Memorial Marathon that he was buried wearing the jacket given to the Ran Them All club and one of the race shirts along with his running shorts and running shoes.

The way he relished the race is why his entire family went to the expo Saturday wearing blue shirts with his name and special race bibs with his photo. Why Tom and his wife, Jessica, ran the 5K. Why Katie and her husband, Evan, were part of the marathon relay.

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It’s even why they had dinner Saturday at Vito’s, the Italian restaurant on May Avenue where Qualls always had his pre-race meal.

“We’re keeping those” rituals, Katie Fay said. “Maybe making some new ones.”

Katie knew the 30 for 30 story, the fairytale would’ve been her running the full marathon the year after her granddad died. But she felt that was his race, his thing. She didn’t want to infringe on it.

Besides, the idea of running the marathon felt heavy.

“This feels harder, much harder, than his funeral,” she told her coworkers last week.

Even though she decided to switch things up and do the marathon relay with her husband and three close friends, Katie still wondered how Sunday would be. Sad? Melancholy? Sorrowful? But one of the Ran Them All club members gave her a bit of advice.

Run happy.

That’s what she did.

“I think this is what he would want,” she said as she stood beyond the finish line Sunday, a few clouds dampening the sun and a light breeze cooling the morning.

She smiled again.

“It’s a beautiful day and everything that he could have wanted and that I could have hoped for,” she said.

Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Memorial Marathon: Spirit of Larry Qualls lives on